Question

discuss the posyive and neagtive impwct of the usage of smartphone on society at large .please give examples

Answer 1

Impacts of Smartphone’s on Society:
Smartphone has impacted almost all walk of human life. Smartphone are obvious include business,
education, health and social life. At one end Smartphone are enabling people to create their own
micro-cultures and engage into activities considered dangerous of society and on the other end
Smartphone enabling people to remain connected all the time. The following points giving the idea
of positive and negative impacts –
1. Business:
Smartphone has created new dimensions for business. It is not only the Smartphone vendors
enjoying the business but it also created a new domain for mobile application developing
companies, Internet services provider and other sectors of life to utilize the Smartphone to
gain competitive advantages.
1.1. Positive Impacts –
There has been a drastic growth in broadband and Internet service providers business in
past few years. As it is easy to change settings and make customizations on Smartphone,
therefore there are several programs for Smartphone ‘s from different vendors
including Blackberry, Android, iPhone and Microsoft etc. Mobile Application Market is
another business sector introduced by Smartphone ‘s. The most common one are
iPhone application market, BlackBerry application market, Android market, Microsoft
mobile Application market. These market places also provide some free of cost
application and some applications have associated with reasonable cost. Smartphone ‘s
also impacted advertising business sector as well. Mobile application publisher,
distributor and service provider are getting large revenue by providing ads as a part of
mobile application. The polarity has reversed in the technology industry and now many
exciting developments in the field of information technology (IT) are appearing in
consumer market space first and only then making their way into other fields.
1.2. Negative Impacts –
The major impact of Smartphone is on PC market. According to a survey by Compete, a
web analytics firm, a large number of people almost up to 65% are using their smart
phones to read news feeds, post status updates, read & reply to messages and post
photos. This shows that now people are leaving PCs and moving towards Smartphone‘s.
According to market results in 2011 Smartphone shipments beat those of PCs, with 73
million more units being sold. According to analysts, the long dominated Microsoft and
Intel alliance is experiencing bad times due to the rise of Smartphone‘s and tablets, and
the pressure to gain market share in the mobile device market is causing fractures in
long partnership. All companies are taking forceful steps to power their way into
Smartphone market, but still find themselves behind the curve.
2. Education:
The notion and value of education has been exceptional and noble since day one in human
history and the efforts to improve the quality of education has been appreciated
throughout. Smartphone‘s introduced another means for the knowledge lovers to fulfil their
thrust and dreams.
2.1. Positive Impacts –
Use of the Internet has become a part of life of every student and a mean to search for
the information as and when it is needed. The growing demand of Smartphone,
availability of the Internet and high speed mobile browsing is ready to provide an
alternative channel to deliver education services. Distance education is a learning
mechanism that focuses to liberate students from limitations of time and location, while offering flexible opportunities for education. Distance learning enables students to
utilize their time such that they can continue their education without impacting their
work and family life. The Smartphone with the capability of always connected makes it
much easier for the students to avail this type of education facility and makes the
Smartphone a perfect fit device for distance learning. The education system of
developing countries might unarguably be the most prevalent beneficiary of the mobile
technologies. Smartphone‘s are not just supplementary devices for developing
countries, but these devices can play integral part of in their education systems.
2.2. Negative Impacts –
Along with their fantastic facilities, Smartphone‘s enables students to text, cooperate on
social networking sites, check e-mails, play online games, and even watch TV channels.
This is not only distracting for the student, but it can also become distracting for other
students around them and even sometimes for whole class. In fact some surprising
statistics are there about the use of Smartphone‘s for cheating in the classroom. The
misuse of Smartphone could be through the use of text message exchange with other
students, find answers on the Internet, using advanced calculator and phone
applications, reading notes saved on their phones to help on the test. Smartphone‘s can
encourage bullying and hazing also. Bullying and hazing are very serious problems in
schools across many countries including United States of America (USA). Smartphone‘s
come equipped with camera and video technology, which can be used to record and
photograph bullying and hazing in schools and colleges.
3. Health:
According to a survey almost half of Smartphone users use their phone for access health
related services.
3.1. Positive Impacts –
Today Smartphone are the most commonly used devices for communication and almost
27% of the consumers‘ use Smartphone‘s for online activities. Accordingly surveys more
than 10 million users in USA use Smartphone to search for health information and
facilities. In near future we see a breed of mobile applications, which enables doctors
and parents to monitor a patient/child blood glucose levels at any point during the day.
At the moment more than 40,000 mobile health apps available for tablets and
Smartphone‘s, and more than 500 health projects underway worldwide with the
emphasis to use Smartphone apps in health sector. Analysis show that the number of
people using health related apps is growing drastically and 2012 surpassed 247 million.
A survey was conducted on a small number of US healthcare students, administrators,
providers, and nurses by a software company and the reports shows that almost 83%
use Smartphone‘s to access, 72% use Smartphone‘s to write notes and memos, 50% use
it for drug references, 28% use Smartphone to access clinical decision support tool and
13% to view medical images.
3.2. Negative Impacts –
The convenience that Smartphone bring in daily life is tremendous, users with a click or
simple touch of finger can access the health and related services anytime and anywhere,
but along with the convenience it also poses several dangers as well. According to the
article, on average, an user use to check their phones 34 times a day, but not necessarily
that it was really needed to check emails instead it is habitually checking, which may
result, in relying on phone more than doing things themselves. The convenience offered
by these modern devices is indeed great, but on the other side also there are major
issues associated:

• Disconnect kids from the true essence of social interaction. For example, games
and other entertainment applications designed for kids may discourage them
from interacting with other kids and people around them.
• Excessive exposure of these devices in early age can cause poor eye sight for
kids.
• The use of Smartphone‘s exposes children to the habit of jumping from one
option to another that trains them to gather small portions of information
instead of concentrating and getting complete information. This habit is harmful
for development of brain.
• Online and video games are addicting and kids may easily get addicted and
spend hours playing games and this may be awful when they have Smartphone
with them everywhere they go.
4. Psychological Impacts:
Impacts of Smartphone on human Psychology are tremendous; there are several ways that
Smartphone is impacting human Psychology.
4.1. Positive Impacts –
According to a survey on use of Smartphone, the Smartphone provides a mean to
reduce stress in busy work life. Interacting with friends and families, while traveling,
waiting on bus stop enables users to utilize such time to promote their social life. It
enables the users to interact and stay up-to-date with the latest news and development
in the political and social circles resulting in reducing work stress. The smart use of
Smartphone will increase your brain function instead of using the Smartphone only for
entertainment it could be used to access useful information, for example, access the
news headlines, latest technology updates, and real time featured stories from
respected news outlets around the world.
4.2. Negative Impacts -
Addiction to Smartphone (also known as communication addiction disorder), is a serious
problem. According to recent research, the addiction to Smartphone is increasing
rapidly. The addiction to Smartphone can be described as wanting to be in constant
communication with people even though when there is no real need for
communication. Smartphone addiction is not just a buzzword but researchers have
recognized habitual and compulsive communicating as a serious psychic problem. It is
also established that obsession with our Smartphone is also responsible for significantly
altering our brain‘s perception for the device. Most of the time the problem is not with
the use of the Smartphone, but it comes when the device takes over a function that
human brain is capable to perform perfectly. Another psychological impact is that users
check their mobiles almost all the times, while at work time, with family or even when
with friends.
5. Social Impacts:
The social life has been drastically changed with the introduction of Smartphone‘s and this
domain has encountered most of the impacts from use of Smartphone.
5.1. Positive Impacts –
Accordingly to research, around 15% of the current world population has some sort of
disabilities and also the number of elderly persons increasing day by day. Furthermore,
this research shows that, by year 2020 more than 1000 million people over 60 years age
will be living on this planet. Smartphone‘s are capable to give this group of people the
opportunity to live more independently. Smartphone features like, text to speech, GPS
and social Websites are some examples, which can help this group of people to easily remain integrated with society. Using these services and many more features, the target
group of people can easily communicate their needs, seek assistance from others and
remain connected to society. Always connected to the Internet through a Smartphone
provides a great instrument for individuals for constant communication resulting in
great safety for children attending schools or going outside. Smartphone features like
the camera, video capture, access to social Websites and nature of always connected to
the Internet enable individuals to capture any video at any time and share it with friends
and family using social Websites and other Internet based options.
5.2. Negative Impacts –
Addiction to Smartphone is major impact on social life. Surveys show that Smartphone
addiction is interfering with our night‘s sleep. According to the survey, 33% of mobile
workers admitted that they check their phones for email and message throughout the
night. Another aspect is that applications installed on Smartphone enabling image and
video editing, allowing individuals to manipulate the actual content and provide their
version of the content. Smartphone users engage in continuous monitoring of their
work related emails, which creates compulsive routines of chronic checking and in the
long run it is responsible for increased stress. There are evidences that Smartphone
usage is responsible to blur the distinctions between the work and family life. Cyber
bullying is another major issue the society is facing today. The advent of Smartphone
and the nature of being connected to internet anytime and anywhere enables student
to access irrelevant content while at schools, enables working community to access
social Websites and other irrelevant content while at work, and enables youth to access
the Internet for inappropriate contents. Smartphone‘s and social networking site are
likely to become the next target for criminal attacks. Security holes on several
Smartphone‘s were exploited and malicious software was found on several
Smartphone‘s from different vendors.